German [was Re: Trademarks]
| From: | Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...> |
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| Date: | Sunday, December 9, 2001, 4:43 |
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Quoting Andreas Johansson <and_yo@...>:
> > Dammit, my tongue isn't that flexible...the vowels aren't
> > too hard to pick up, but the consonants...that and the fact
> > that while I love speaking German, it gives me a sore throat
> > very rapidly.
>
> Sore throat from speaking German? From what?
No kidding. German has a bad rap because of certain political
difficulties caused by its leaders during the first half of
the 20th century. Really, if you know how to pronounce it, it
doesn't sound raspy at all.
> But I maybe shouldn't say to much since my German teachers
> (both the guy who don't believe in low rounded vowels and
> the German one) tell be that I preferably shouldn't use any
> retroflex trills when speaking German (however, tho' I still
> can't make uvuluar r's reliably, I can at least do those
> vocalized ones nowadays, so I'm improving).
Yeah. I never had any trouble with the vocalized /r/s,
since they sound almost like RP English to me. Just think
Prime Ministers before the advent of Tony Blair! But using
any kind of apical trill is a Bad Thing. It makes you sound,
you know, like you're at a Nuremberg Rally 'n' stuff.
=====================================================================
Thomas Wier <trwier@...> <http://home.uchicago.edu/~trwier>
"...koruphàs hetéras hetére:isi prosápto:n /
Dept. of Linguistics mú:tho:n mè: teléein atrapòn mían..."
University of Chicago "To join together diverse peaks of thought /
1010 E. 59th Street and not complete one road that has no turn"
Chicago, IL 60637 Empedocles, _On Nature_, on speculative thinkers
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